


Adapt and Transform

by moonflowers



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Both Kingsman and HP 'verses exist alongside each other, Domestic, Eggsy only slightly less so, Established Relationship, Fluff, For a Spy Harry is Horribly Unobservant, Harry Potter Fusion, Harry is a drama queen, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV Alternating, Secrets, Shenanigans, Spy Harry, Wizard Eggsy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 02:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11371053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonflowers/pseuds/moonflowers
Summary: Harry and Eggsy have been seeing each other for almost a year, have recently moved in together, and are enjoying their own little bubble of domestic bliss. But between the old broom in the cupboard, feathers on the carpet, and the hidden safe in the wall, things are clearly not all they appear to be. In which each is keeping a monumental secret from the other, and things are beginning to slip through the cracks.





	Adapt and Transform

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so, so much to sarah-the-artiste for the fabulous art to go with the fic, its adorable and absolutely perfect :) Go check it out [here](https://sarah-the-artistes-artblog.tumblr.com/post/162497689039/it-was-my-pleasure-to-participate-in-the).

The two of them had woken up in the same bed any number of times, as one was prone to doing when in a relationship. They'd woken up stiflingly hot, sprawled out and not touching at opposite sides of the bed, duvet pushed back and only the sweat-damp sheets covering them, air thick, too hot to bear being any closer. They'd also woken to mornings where a sharp layer of frost coated the pavements and the rooftops, wrapped as close together as possible, cold toes tucked between each other's legs and burrowed beneath extra blankets. There'd been times they'd woken annoyed with each other, despite their best intentions of never saying goodnight on a bad note, and times they'd woken more blissfully happy than they could ever remember being before. They'd woken up hungover, sour-mouthed and still tired, wanting a kiss but not quite sure if they were physically up to the task. Sometimes they'd woken up feeling quite the opposite, like they could kiss the day away, hide under the covers and shut out the world, kiss and touch and taste and shout and learn each other anew. There were times they'd woken up not in bed at all, but at an odd angle on the sofa, scrunched up under the poorly draped throw grabbed from the back of the armchair the night before, necks and backs stiff and sore after falling asleep watching a film. They'd woken up next to each other many times, but the most recent mornings had been the best of the lot.

 

~

 

As of one week ago, Eggsy had officially moved in to Harry's house. _Their_ house now, as Harry insisted every time it came up. The last box had been unpacked the night before, lending a sense of finality to proceedings. Eggsy's toothbrush was no longer 'the spare one.' He no longer had to 'keep a few things at Harry's place.' His own clothes filled the drawers alongside Harry's own, his dog's bed sat in the kitchen, a photo of his mother and sister up in the living room. Harry was perfectly thrilled to see fragments of Eggsy's life mixed through with his own detritus. He was perhaps still somewhat precious about which teacups went where on the sideboard, the exact angle of a case of butterflies sitting in the hall, or the layout of his grooming products in the bathroom cabinet. But he didn't get any less enjoyment out of them for them being next to a lion made of pipecleaners that Daisy had given them, the odd bit of football memorabilia, or an obscene mug Eggsy's friends had gifted him with on his last birthday. Harry had always preferred to describe his taste in home decor as eclectic, though he'd heard many more derogatory terms for it, and Eggsy's possessions only added to that, rather than taking away from what was there before. Likewise, since it was now their bed and not Harry's bed, waking up next to Eggsy had taken on whole new layer of satisfaction that Harry had been beginning to suspect that, before Eggsy, he'd never be lucky enough to find. 

"Good morning, my darling." Harry could feel Eggsy moving around him before he'd even opened his eyes; a careful shifting of weight on the mattress, a deliberate arrangement of sleep-slow limbs until one knee was either side of Harry's hips and Eggsy was leaning over him. 

"Mornin'," Eggsy's voice was soft next to his ear, breath warm and stale on his neck where Eggsy pressed a dry-lipped kiss. Harry kept his eyes closed. Though they were both habitually early risers, Eggsy was a genuine 'morning person,' wide awake and ready to go with the sun, where in Harry's case it was only ever through necessity. As such, he was keen to cling on to those last fragile threads of pleasant drowsiness, his body relaxed and the comfort of Eggsy next to him before he really did need to get out of bed. "I got a confession to make."

"What might that be?" Harry kept his eyes determinedly closed against the growing light behind his eyelids.

"I woke you up early. Alarm isn't set to go off for another ten minutes." He could feel the low hum of Eggsy's voice through his chest. 

"Mm. And why would you do that?" Harry shifted slightly, the small of his back damp with sweat under the heavy duvet, the humid, musky warmth of where their bodies met, Eggsy's backside across Harry's thighs. 

"Thought it might be nice if we could snatch a few minutes together before we got to get up."

"Naughty." Harry moved his hands under the covers, each gripping lightly at the back of Eggsy's knees before moving up along the thickness of his thighs, brushing the hairs the wrong way, fingertips resting at the hem of his boxer shorts. He felt Eggsy's hands move in retaliation, tracing clumsy patterns over Harry's chest through his pyjamas, blunt nails catching on the buttons and leaving the feeling of swirling lines on his skin even after they'd moved away. "But I must admit this is rather more pleasant than the alarm."

Eggsy snorted. "Thought you might say that."

Harry opened his eyes. The bedroom was cast bright in slanting yellows from the morning sun through the curtains, making Eggsy little more than a haloed shadow until he squinted and blinked it away to see him propped up above him and smiling.

"Hey babes. Nice of you to join me."

 

Unfortunately, for all of Eggsy's good intentions an extra ten minutes didn't go an awfully long way, and all too soon the two of them were headed their separate ways to work. Harry's cab to the shop was waiting, so they said their hurried goodbyes on the front step, a quick kiss and a 'see you later,' along with Eggsy's usual refusal of Harry's offer of a lift. He seemed to favour walking to work, always turned down a ride even if he claimed he was running late or the weather seemed dubious, no matter how many times Harry offered him one. But each to their own. Harry watched him walk away, back straight and hands in his pockets, until his long stride took him away around the corner. Aware that he'd no doubt kept the driver waiting longer than was necessary already, Harry leant forward to open the back door of the car. In doing so, something stuck to the shoulder of his jacket caught his eye, a stray bit of fluff or something equally inconsequential. But when he plucked it from the fabric, it turned out to be a feather, small and fluffy, a soft tawny brown. He let it go, and it drifted to the ground to mix with the dust and stray leaves and the other odd few pigeon feathers, and thought no more of it. 

During the slow and tedious journey through traffic into work, the pleasant mood Harry'd woken up in had dissipated. At around eleven o'clock, by which time he was thoroughly bored with paperwork and his mind had wandered to what he and Eggsy might have for dinner, it suddenly hit him that _Eggsy had moved in._ They were _living together._ The last box had been unpacked. He was in a committed relationship with another human being to the extent that they had made the decision to share a home, and it all suddenly felt a lot more serious than Harry had ever hoped or indeed expected things between he and Eggsy to become. Things between them hadn't progressed quickly per se, they'd been together well over a year now, but the gravity of it had somehow managed to sneak up on him all the same.  
It wasn't the commitment or the relationship itself that troubled him; Eggsy was perfect and he'd have polite but firm words with anyone who dared suggest otherwise, so much as the fact that Eggsy _didn't know._ It seemed to Harry the ultimate betrayal, to agree to share his life with someone as he had done, and to not divulge such a big part of it, to sneak around behind his back. And Harry more or less lied for a living. It had crossed his mind on occasion - how could it not? - but he'd always pushed it back out and put off doing something about it until another day. But suddenly it was that other day and he'd done nothing. It was only on very rare occasions that Harry panicked, and so he did as he always did when one of those special days came around, and summoned Merlin to his office.

"So I'm here because you feel guilty for Eggsy not knowing about Kingsman, and you've arrived at the conclusion that whining to me about it will somehow make it all better?" Merlin said a short while later, cup of tea in hand after sitting through Harry's explanation of his troubles, made somewhat inelegant by his reluctance to admit that he'd cocked up.

"That's the long and short of it I suppose, yes," Harry agreed, though it sounded deceptively simple, put like that. That and the fact that he was suddenly living in fear of somehow fucking it all up, Eggsy finding out too much and forcing Harry to amnesia dart the man he loved in the jugular. "As loathe as I am to admit it, your track record of solving all my problems is rather high." 

"True." That part at least, Merlin was always willing to agree with him on. 

"It's just - he's been let down by so many other people in his life, Merlin, and he'd hate me if he ever found out that I'm no better than the rest of them. I don't want to be another name on the list of people who've hurt him." It was difficult to get the words out - despite their long years of knowing each other, he and Merlin rarely got so candid when it came to emotions - it was about what they didn't say to each other rather than what they did. "He doesn't deserve that."

"Harry," Merlin sighed and looked as though he was fighting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose or to bypass the niceties altogether and just empty his tea over Harry's head, "I don’t want to seem flippant about this, or make it sound as though I'm taking it too lightly, because we both know it's hardly a trivial matter. But if things are as serious as all that - which they undoubtedly are, he lives in your house for fuck's sake - then you can tell him, you know that."

"It's not that simple."

"Aye, it is," Merlin insisted. "The forms are a bugger but it’s not impossible." He met Harry's eye, observed him evenly through his glasses, all with the aura that he was being far more patient that Harry deserved. "It'd all be above board, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "No Merlin, Eggsy's too - " he paused to select the right word but came up blank, every option seeming too simple or too overwrought, "he wells up at television ads for dog charities for heaven's sake, I can't tell him I kill people."

Merlin snorted, any trace of patience evaporating. "Don’t be so sodding dramatic Harry you're hardly Jack the Ripper. And that boy of yours is most certainly not naive, I've seen his files. We both know he's seen some shite, and no good will come of you wrapping him up in cotton wool. He wouldn't thank you for it."

And Harry knew that - he knew Eggsy'd had a rough start, and Harry greatly admired his strength and kindness in the face of what life had dealt him, but that didn't stop him from wanting to protect him when he could. His dear boy was more than capable of taking care of himself, but there was a difference between dealing out a well deserved punch to a mouthy prick in a pub and learning his partner killed for a living and had lied to him through omission about it for the entirety of their relationship. 

"Fine," he said eventually, predominantly just to put an end to the conversation, no longer in the mood. "I'll consider it." Merlin looked sceptical, but pushed the plate of biscuits towards him and let him be.

 

~

 

To be honest, Eggsy had never thought he'd have it so fucking good. That morning, he'd woken up stretched out on his front, hugging a pillow tight and alright maybe dribbling just a tiny bit, bare shoulders warmed from the sun coming through the curtains. He'd shoved the covers down around his middle while rolling around in the night, but next to him Harry'd still had them pulled up high around his neck, face slack in sleep, because the bugger never woke up a minute before he had to. Which all worked out to Eggsy's advantage really, because it had given him the chance to come up with 101 fun ways to wake up his boyfriend other than waiting for the alarm to go off. Number thirty two was particularly fucking brilliant, but they really hadn't had enough time for it that morning. All they'd had time for was a bit of a snog when it came to it, but he was hardly complaining - Harry was less put together when he first woke up, more tactile and pliant, content to let Eggsy kiss him slow and messy while his warm hands ran up along the backs of Eggsy's legs, his thighs and his arse, holding gently at his hips and rubbing the small of his back.  
As much as he would've rather had Harry for breakfast, he'd dragged himself out of bed a frustratingly short time later to go and actually eat something, because he'd learnt the hard way he'd be fucking grumpy in an hour or so's time if he didn't bother. They'd said goodbye at the front door, Eggsy turning down Harry's offer of a lift as per usual and instead nipped around the corner out of sight to apparate to work.

 

Despite his good mood on waking up, he was a little bit off his game the rest of the morning. It wouldn't be long now until he'd be taking the final set of tests that would make him a fully qualified auror, and by all means he should have been pretty spot on at everything. But he'd spent all morning in the training room fine tuning his defensive spellwork with Charlie and Rox, and he'd been tense as fuck all the way through. Nearly took Roxy's ear off when he repelled a curse a bit wonky and it bounced off at a funny angle. It was as if his years of training had all been smeared, left indistinct and difficult to grasp. It wasn't until the three of them were on their lunch break that he realised what it was that was bothering him.

"Fuck," he said, and promptly dropped his half-eaten sandwich back on his plate.

"Same to you," said Charlie without skipping a beat, or looking up from his chips.

"Seriously, _fuck,"_ he said again with more feeling, and several heads turned to look at him with disapproval across the quiet little cafe at the end of Diagon Alley where they often spent their breaks.

"Eggsy," Roxy said with concern, licking a stray blob of mayonnaise from her finger, "is something troubling you, by any chance?"

"I live with Harry."

"Well I should bloody well hope so," Charlie said, with a curl of his lip and fingers resting light around his cup of tea, "we've only had to listen to you brooding over whether or not he was ever going to ask you for the past two months."

Roxy shot him a dark look before turning back to Eggsy. "You do. Is that a problem?"

"It's just... that's pretty serious yeah? I was so keen to get to where we are now, I never really stopped to think about what would happen when we did."

"Alright," said Roxy evenly, as ever the voice of reason. "Are you having second thoughts?"

"Nah," Eggsy said immediately, "I'm fuckin' bonkers for Harry, you know that. It's just that I never told him, did I. He's a muggle, thinks I work in an office or some shit." He'd explained away the long hours he'd been putting in as the end of his auror training approached by telling Harry he was in the running for a promotion, and needed to work a few extra hours here and there to make the cut.

Charlie blinked at him. "This is a problem because...?"

"Well I'm bound to slip up and some point aren't I? Fuck things up good and proper and break the Statute of Secrecy and have to wipe his fucking memory, _shit,"_ he carried on, ignoring the other customers shaking their heads and muttering into their pumpkin pasties, too worked up to stop once all his fears came tumbling out. "I couldn't fucking bear it, seeing his eyes go all blank like they do, not know who I am... I swear down he heard me use _reparo_ when I dropped a sodding mug in the kitchen the other day, that's man's a fucking ninja, Jesus."

"Merlin's beard Eggsy, if your relationship is as serious as all that - which it obviously is, that man is all you ever talk about - " Roxy said, "then tell him. You can't live under the same bloody roof and not."

"But I - "

"Eggsy," Roxy said firmly, gently pulling the sugar packet Eggsy was fiddling with out of his hands, "just get the paperwork from the ministry registering Harry as your official partner, which should be even easier now that you share an address, then you can tell him everything, and it won't be a problem anymore."

"I can get you the forms if you want," Charlie said, oddly helpful, "you know my aunt's head of the Muggle Liaison department."

"Yeah that's all fine," said Eggsy sullenly, ignoring Charlie, "apart from the bit where Harry loses his shit about me lying to him all this time and ditches me anyway. And what if he doesn't even believe me? Would you?"

Roxy and Charlie shared a look, before she gave him the same pitying face she gave her owl after he'd had a rough flight. "I'm not saying it'll all go to plan, Eggsy. But isn't it worth trying?"

 

~

 

"Afternoon babes," the bell above the shop door rang softly as Eggsy let himself in.

"Hello darling," Harry looked up from where he sat on one of the sofas in the waiting area towards the front of the shop, afternoon tea set out on the small table beside him, ready for his better half's arrival.

"A'ight mate?" Eggsy waved to Andrew where the tailor was fussing about with the order book behind the counter, who offered a smile and a nod in return before wincing as he caught sight of Eggsy's choice of clothing. He owned an array of rather hideous patterned jackets in varying shades of yellow - claiming it was his house colour at school and he just couldn't shake it - and though Harry had reached the point where he found them endearing, Andrew still found it hard to mask his despair. Eggsy dropped down onto the seat next to Harry with a huff, leather creaking under his weight, and kissed his cheek. He smelt of cold air and oddly like soot, or the smoke after you blow out a candle. He'd taken the Underground, perhaps.

"Tea?" Harry picked up the pot to pour for them both.

"Always."

Between Harry's erratic hours and frequent travel, and Eggsy's often long days in his office job, it sometimes felt like there weren't enough hours in the day. So on occasion, if the both of them were too busy with work and the like to arrange something else, Eggsy would drop in on Harry for tea at the tailor's shop. It was a habit they'd gotten into before Eggsy had moved in of course, but both of them had hectic enough schedules that it still had its merits. Regrettably, Harry couldn't take him back to his office at the manor; it was much more comfortable and considerably more private than sitting in the shop, but it would only raise more questions he couldn't answer.

"What've we got today then?" Eggsy peered at the display of sandwiches and cakes alongside the cups on the tea tray.

"I've no idea," Harry said, ever wary of the sandwiches and not particularly hungry anyway. "But the kitchen staff were aware it was you I'd be taking tea with, so I imagine something rather creative."

"Fuckin' yes," Eggsy grinned and reached for the plate.

After the first few visits Eggsy had made for tea at the shop, he'd quickly and loudly grown bored of the cucumber sandwiches cut precisely into tiny triangles that always arrived on the tray, and had become determined to find a way to jazz them up a bit. Apparently the answer had been to request they add Marmite, much to the catering staff's distress. Ever since then, all bets had been off as far as what went in the sandwiches when Eggsy was calling in, each new combination they came up with more unconventional than the last. To Eggsy's credit, he'd only had to spit it out once, and more often than not quite enjoyed what they gleefully came up with for him. Margaret had gone so far as to bake him a cake on his birthday, though thankfully left all experimental fillings at the wayside for the occasion.  
Harry was willing to admit, if only to himself, that he enjoyed watching Eggsy pick his way around those fussy little teas trays - frowning at some new addition he was unsure off, gulping down tea in a less than gentlemanly manner, Harry's eye following the heavy bob of his throat, delicate little pastries light with icing sugar he licked from his fingers, or rich cream teas that left his lips plump and jam sticky.

"God, I'm glad I managed to get out of the office for a bit," Eggsy said, grabbing the tea Harry'd just poured, "mostly to see you, obviously," he winked, "but it's all these extra hours I'm doing, I'm fucking knackered." He paused to take a sip of his tea, and promptly nearly spat it out again. _"Merlin_ that's hot!"

"What?"

Thrown by Eggsy's unexpected and oddly specific exclamation, Harry fumbled his teacup and it almost slipped from his fingers altogether. Fortunately Eggsy was too busy bemoaning his own burnt tongue to notice. Surely he must have heard him incorrectly; Eggsy had never even met Merlin. His colleague remained largely at the manor to work, barely ever surfacing at the shop due to his talents being of more use behind a computer screen or behind the wheel than in the fitting room. Had Harry slipped up and mentioned him without realising? Were all his fears unfolding already and Eggsy knew more than he was letting on? But it wouldn't do to get himself into a flap about it, not until he knew more at least. He regained his composure, convinced himself to put it down to having misheard in the end - though it was practically impossible, and he had the hearing test scores to prove it - but he knew he'd have to look into it or he'd never get a moment's rest.  
He forced himself to appear at ease through the remainder of Eggsy'd time at the shop, nodding along or smiling or only half-seriously reprimanding where appropriate, until Eggsy announced he had to get going.

"I gotta go babes, this afternoon's going to be fucking mad at work," he leant down, smushed a goodbye kiss to the side of Harry's face. "I'll see you at home, yeah? And tell Margaret they did a bang-up job with the sandwiches. Tuna and piccalilli - a match made in fucking heaven."

 

~

 

The fact that Harry was late getting home for dinner wasn't too much of a worry for Eggsy. He was late for everything, even things he was actually looking forward to, as a majority of their early dates had proved. Most of the time though, it wasn't his fault and he'd just had to stay on a bit later at work - the hours Harry put in at the tailor's shop seemed weirdly long, but hey ho, rich people had fucked up priorities. And waiting for him to get back so he could start cooking was hardly a chore when he was babysitting Daisy - any moment he could steal playing with her was a moment well spent. 

"If Harry's much longer, I'll just have to eat you for my dinner, Daisy girl," he gave her a toothy smile and reached out to tickle her tummy.

"Nooo!" she squealed with delight and wriggled about in her chair as Eggsy laughed and kept tickling.

"You sure? You're only little - just the right size to put in a sandwich!" he swept her up out of the chair and blew a raspberry on her cheek. "You'd fit right inside a bread roll nice and tidy."

She squeaked and laughed harder, so happy about all the hugs and kisses and games with her big brother, that something happened that had been becoming a worryingly regular occurrence lately - she did magic. A flurry of big pink and blue bubbles popped up out of nowhere around their heads, and despite himself Eggsy couldn't help but be dead proud of his clever baby sister. He hadn't been sure if Daisy was going to have magic or not to begin with - Eggsy was muggleborn and it was pretty fucking unlikely there was any magical blood on Dean's side (luckily his Hogwarts letter had shown up before his stepdad was in the picture) but it seemed like she was going to follow in her big brother's footsteps. There wasn't long for Eggsy to savour the moment though, as Harry chose that moment to come home.

"Shit," Eggsy said with feeling, swiftly plopping Daisy back down in her high chair before reaching up to burst the half dozen or so bubbles still drifting about his head.

"Apologies," Harry said as he sauntered into the kitchen, "a client was giving us a spot of trouble."

"No worries babes," Eggsy said, hoping his smile didn't look too forced. "Was thinking of just doing some pasta if that's alright with you? Dais is bein' fussy as hell at the moment and it's something I know she likes."

"Miss Daisy!" Harry turned to her immediately, "how rude of me not to say hello to you too." He lifted her carefully from the chair and she wrapped her little arms tight around his neck, babbling baby words and going mad giggly with excitement to see him, so wound up that she made the lights flicker.

"Oh Christ," Eggsy muttered to himself as Daisy calmed down and the kitchen lights thankfully went back to normal, Harry frowning up at the light fittings in concern.

"Bulb must be on the way out," he said, ignoring the way Daisy was grabbing at his tie.

Eggsy mumbled something in agreement and tried to hide his grimace behind the cupboard door as he dragged out the pans to make a start on the pasta, fingers mentally crossed that Harry wouldn't make her laugh too hard and do the bubble thing again. 

 

It was still light after dinner, the summer evening just beginning to cool off as they walked Daisy back to their mum's through the park. Daisy was tottering about a few steps ahead and chattering away to herself about fuck knows what with the odd recognisable word thrown in, with Harry and Eggsy following behind, hand in hand. 

"She's utterly delightful you know," Harry said.

"I do know," Eggsy said, and squeezed his hand. "But I also know that ain't how you felt the first time you met her."

"Mm, true," Harry nodded, "but once she'd decided we were going to be friends, I'm afraid I was rather powerless to think otherwise." 

"Yeah, she has that effect," Eggsy agreed, although yeah he might have been a tiny bit biased, the both of them watching as she paused to pick a stick up from the grass, before pointing it sternly in the direction of a man walking his dog on the other side of the park.

Harry huffed a soft laugh into Eggsy's hair as she continued to wave the stick in the direction of anything that took her fancy. "It looks as though she's playing magic."

Eggsy just laughed and kept walking, not trusting himself to say anything. _Bruv, you don't even know._

 

By the time they'd stopped for a chat and a quick cuppa at Eggsy's mum's - she was still a bit uncomfortable around Harry, "he's a lovely man Eggs, but I don't know what to do with myself when he's here, he's just so bleedin' posh" - it was dark. Harry'd had the foresight to leave the hallway light on though, so when they stepped through the door the house was cosy and softly lit, and fuck, Eggsy _lived here,_ with his fucking fantastic boyfriend, who he couldn't resist pulling down for a kiss the moment the door was shut.  
Harry was top notch at snogging, and Eggsy loved every way he kissed him - first thing in the morning, stale breathed but affectionate, or quick and hard before they got down to business, teasing little licks along his throat or the insides of his thighs, a press of lips to his freshly-shaved cheek before leaving for work - but this was his favourite. Unhurried and leisurely, like they had all the time in the world, slow and soft kisses, gentle nips at Eggsy's lower lip, breathing deep as he held him close, chests together. It was a proper kiss, not a precursor to anything else, not a gesture, a greeting or a goodbye, not a tease or a promise. It was just a kiss for the sake of kissing, just because they could. 

When they broke apart, Eggsy could feeling himself grinning like an idiot, and looked down at the doormat to sodding pull himself back together. Their shoes were spotted with mud from the park. Eggsy wasn't so fussed about his own - yeah they were nice enough trainers but nothing too flash, it'd come right off. Harry's though, he knew were leather and expensive as fuck, and he couldn't help but feel it was his fault they'd gotten into such a state.

"That chasing about after Daisy got your shoes all muddy," he said, with one last kiss to Harry's chin. "Leave 'em here, and I'll polish them up for you in the morning, yeah?" He'd use a spell when Harry wasn't looking, but he didn't need to know that.

"No," Harry said abruptly, loud and harsh in Eggsy's ear after their soft kisses and murmuring soppy shite. He jerked back a bit in surprise, at a loss as to why Harry was so violently against Eggsy touching his shoes.

"Err, alright then, I won't."

And just liked that, Harry's anguish fluttered away to be replaced by a carefully constructed smile, his hand on Eggsy's cheek. "What I mean is, you shouldn't have to do things like that for me. You're my partner, not my valet. I can clean them up myself easily enough. They've seen worse than a bit of mud in their time."

And before Eggsy could think so much as _wait, what have they seen that's worse than mud?_ Harry'd slunk into the kitchen to put the kettle on.

 

~

 

After working for Kingsman almost three decades, Harry had made several observations about the workload, one of the most notable being that it was usually either all or nothing. That is to say, Harry could be working almost solidly for months, barely seeing the inside of his own house, or he could be at HQ twiddling his thumbs and ignoring trivial paperwork for a week or two, waiting for the villain of the month to make a move. He was currently enduring the latter, with so little to do that Merlin had actually sent him home for the afternoon to spend some time with Eggsy, rather than kicking his heels at HQ and "bothering me and distracting Lancelot from his undercover prep you sulky old bugger." Harry was forced to concede Merlin may have had a point, after he and James had seen fit to test some of the new kit without authorisation, and Harry'd ended up with a nasty cut on his hand. Lord knew what he'd tell Eggsy about that one. The only flaw in Merlin's banishment plan was that Eggsy had an apparently inescapable meeting that afternoon, so Harry was left home alone and at a bit of a loose end. 

In the end, he elected to straighten the house up a little, since after he'd moved in Eggsy had insisted they could manage without the cleaning company sending someone once a week. He also thought it might be a nice surprise for Eggsy, seeing as he was the one who ended up doing the bulk of the housework between the now less frequent visits from the cleaners. And maybe to demonstrate to his better half that yes he was capable of doing a little tidying himself, thank you very much.

He started off upstairs, based on the assumption that the bedrooms would need a little less attention than the kitchen, where toast crumbs proved the most consistent and immovable of enemies. In the master bedroom, he opened the wardrobe to be faced with Eggsy's wide array of interestingly patterned jackets, yellow of course being the most prominently featured. It suited him really, perhaps a reflection of his personality, if you wished to apply armchair psychology to it, and though Harry would grumble and feign shielding his eyes whenever he wore some of the brightest ones, he was really rather charmed by their individuality. He straightened jackets and made sure trousers were hanging creased in the correct places, picked up a tie or two that had fallen to the floor, put a stray sock in the linen basket and a lost cuff link back with it's partner. Lastly, he placed a pair of haphazardly abandoned trainers on the rack next to the oxfords he'd cleaned up after his rather indelicate refusal of Eggsy's offer to do it. He wasn't letting him anywhere near the blade concealed in the sole if he could help it. Yet another thing he wouldn't have to worry about if he just confessed the truth about his career... it was looking more tempting to do so by the day, despite his reservations. As he pulled the wardrobe shut, he noticed another little feather, brown and fluffed up, lying innocently on the carpet. Frowning, he bent to pick it up, wondering if perhaps JB had gotten to a cushion somehow without them noticing. It wasn't like him to chew on things, but perhaps if the move had upset him... He went to check the all the pillows in the bedrooms for bites or tears, as well as the cushions in the sitting room, but with no luck.

With upstairs about as tidy as it was going to get, Harry made a start downstairs, waking JB from his nap in the process. All he ever seemed to do in the day was sleep, leaving him restless and bothersome during the night. But apparently the pug had decided he'd lounged about enough for the time being, and instead pottered about after Harry, watching as he got to work on the kitchen. He was better company than no one at all, and Harry soon found himself, rather embarrassingly, chatting away to him as he worked. 

"Do you know, it's not all that bad in here after all," Harry said, head deep within a kitchen cupboard, the jars and cans and bottles relatively tidy already. When Eggsy had moved in, the two of them had gone through most of the cupboards to make more space and throw away anything out of date that had escaped notice. But still, he pushed a few things about anyway so he felt as though he'd achieved something, turned tins of soup so their labels faced the front.

"That's about all I can do there, JB," Harry said as he straightened up. The dog simply panted at him from where he sat by the cooker. Purely so he could say he'd looked over the whole kitchen, Harry opened the cupboard by the sink, which housed smaller items like salt and pepper and little jars of herbs, along with a rather odd collection belonging to Eggsy.

"Your master and his natural remedies, honestly..." Harry said to JB as he peered at a jar of something brown and rather nasty looking. Most of the jars and bottles and packets both looked and smelled rather unpleasant, all with no labels that Harry could make much sense of. Though admittedly, the few times he'd felt poorly enough to submit and let Eggsy use his odd remedies on him, they seemed to have done him a world of good. Not willing to mess about with Eggsy's strange collection of leaves and and powders and carefully stoppered bottles that seemed to clear up a hangover or a cold faster than supplies from the Kingsman medical team, Harry put the jar back and closed the cupboard.

Not quite sure what to do next, Harry wondered about the sitting room, dining room and hallway, pulling open cupboard doors at random and running his finger over picture frames to check for dust. There was none. At a bit of a loss, he opened the airing cupboard in the hall, which was, as in most homes, a bit of a dumping ground for things that didn't belong anywhere else. 

"Lord knows why he's so precious about this old broom, eh?" he said to JB as he pulled it out from behind the ironing board. It was for emergencies - the last time Harry had needed to do his own ironing was probably almost a decade ago. There was some nonsense word - a brand name most likely - written in gold on the handle of the broom. A handle made of wood, by the way, and honestly, who on earth still used a wooden broomstick in this day and age? It looked like something from a witch's arsenal. Frankly, Harry had no idea why Eggsy'd even brought it with him when he'd moved in. 

After concluding the house hadn't actually been so in need of tidying as he'd expected, Harry decided he'd earned a cup of tea and a ginger biscuit or two. As the kettle boiled, he sought out the biscuit tin, a battered old tartan thing originally full of shortbread that Merlin had brought him back from a visit to his family. As he reached for it, his hand knocked a small box half hidden behind it. It appeared to contain sweets from the look of the colourful packaging, though not a brand Harry had ever heard of, presumably left behind by Daisy. Curious, he opened the box to find what looked like jelly beans. Though when Harry took a cursory sniff out of habit, they smelt very odd indeed - the expected scent of sugar and artificial fruit, but also something decidedly more savoury. He thought it in his best interests to leave them be, and stuck to his biscuits as planned.

 

~

 

Eggsy had had a shitty day at work. He and Charlie mostly got on these days, what with having to work together and Hogwarts being long in the past and all, but not today. Oh no. Today he'd slipped back into being the prick that had sneered at Eggsy for being a muggleborn and a Hufflepuff, refused to listen to anything he'd said and did as he pleased, and in doing so royally fucked up their training exercise that afternoon. He scowled at the cobbled pavement as he stomped along Stanhope Mews, the prospect of an evening alone with no one to vent to about Charlie fucking Hesketh souring his mood even further. Roxy had a date, someone new from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department that she'd had her eye on for over a month before finally asking them to dinner, so was unable to commiserate with him. Not that he would have let her cancel for his sake anyway. JB was with his mum and Harry'd been called away unexpectedly for the past few days, and the house would be depressingly empty without either of them in it.

Eggsy let himself in - with the key rather than his wand, for the sake of the neighbours - dumped the bag with his work robes stashed away in at the bottom of the stairs and went straight into the dining room to get a drink. Anything to take his mind off an afternoon spent with Charlie poking at his sore spots. By that point, he very much could not be fucked to hunt for the poncy little key that opened the drinks cabinet, and, still huffing distractedly over his fucking crap day, shot a sloppily aimed _alohamora_ at it over his shoulder. Hearing the click of a lock and the door swing open, he turned to reach for the whiskey, only to find the cabinet still locked. Just to the right of it though, a panel of the wall had opened to reveal the thick metal lining of a hidden wall safe. Well, shit.

"Lumos," he said quietly, held up his wand to get a better look at whatever it was Harry had deemed important enough to hide away in the wall. 

It... wasn't all that interesting, at first glance. A couple of plain looking envelopes that screamed serious business matters. A pair of glasses, set of cuff links, a ring, watch and a lighter, all identical to those Harry was never without when he set off for work. Only the lighter was unfamiliar to him - Harry didn't smoke. And then there was the gun. That got Eggsy's back up a bit; it was the sort thing he would've thought Harry would have told him about. He knew Harry was keen on home security - the alarm system he had set up was ridiculous - but Eggsy reckoned it was a step too far, even for him. Or something left over as a reminder his time in the army, maybe? Although at a quick glance it looked to be in too good a working order for that - growing up as he had, Eggsy knew a decent firearm when he saw one, despite the magical community having little use for them. Fucking hell... When he'd said he wanted a distraction from his piss poor day, that wasn't exactly what he'd meant.

And then, because luck was not sodding on his side that day, the front door opened.

"Eggsy?"

Harry was back early. Merlin, the man was never early for anything, why the bloody fuck did he have to pick the moment Eggsy was elbows deep in his shady as fuck secret wall safe? He hastily slammed it shut and straightened up, stuffing his wand up his sleeve and slapping on a smile. Just in the nick of time apparently, because that was when Harry sauntered into the dining room, smiling at him and holding a flat, white box. 

"You're back early." It sounded more like an accusation than he'd intended. Fortunately Harry didn't seemed overly bothered.

"Really Eggsy," he huffed out a laugh and crossed the room to stand in front of him, "you could sound more pleased about it."

"Of course I'm fucking pleased," he said, trying not to look at the now smooth patch of wall that he knew concealed the safe. "Just surprised, yeah?"

"I felt so terribly bad about leaving you unexpectedly like that, and for being gone so long, that I wanted to get home again as soon as I could. And I brought you back a little something." He tilted the box and lifted the lid to show Eggsy the neat rows of tiny little florentines, shiny and sticky and looking fucking delicious.

"Fuck Harry, they look good," Eggsy said leaning in for a sniff. "You shouldn't have though, if you were so busy and shit..."

"Nonsense. It was absolutely no trouble at all. And I'm not just saying that, the client I was fitting just so happened to be the head of a small chain of bakeries."

"I really am glad you're back babes," Eggsy reached up to press a kiss to Harry's lips. He smelt like the inside of a cab and tasted like coffee, but Eggsy couldn't stop his eyes from darting over to that innocuous looking stretch of wall. "But let’s go in the other room, yeah? Come sit down, and if you're lucky, I'll let you cop a feel while you tell me about your trip." 

Harry laughed into his hair, hand bunched in the back of Eggsy's shirt. "Good Lord, I've missed you," Harry pulled him back in for another kiss before Eggsy steered them both from the room, unable to stop himself glancing back over his shoulder, just to check the safe hadn't spontaneously swung open again and given him away. Had he not been so flustered, he might have registered the gun holsters under Harry's suit jacket that he'd forgotten to take off in his haste to say hello to Eggsy. 

Half an hour later, Harry'd had a quick shower - and Eggsy'd had a chance to calm down and get how he felt about his recent discovery all straightened out; yeah Harry had a gun, but Eggsy trusted him enough to guess there was a reason for it, and the rest he'd figure out later - and the two of them were sitting on the sofa. Or Harry was sitting, at least. Eggsy was curled up around him, steadily working his way through the delicate little florentines, occasionally lifting one up for Harry to take from his fingers. 

"These are fucking good, babes," Eggsy groaned around his eighth, a glorious, sticky mouthful of dark chocolate and cherry. He made a note to bring Harry something special back from Honeydukes the next time he had to pass through Hogsmeade. 

"You're very welcome," Harry said, dipped to kiss Eggsy's temple. As he straightened back up, Eggsy felt him wince and hiss in pain.

"Fuck, are you okay?" he immediately moved off of him, not wanting to make whatever it was worse with his weight sprawled across him too. Fuck, they'd been sitting like that for ages and he hadn't even noticed. Maybe not quite so over the gun as he'd thought then, to be so distracted.

"Fine, I assure you," Harry said with a slightly pained smile, " just a little stiff from the plane, darling. I fell asleep at the most awkward angle without you there to stop me."

Bullshit. Eggsy knew bruised ribs when he saw them. But he let it slide, not sure where either of them stood in this mess and reluctant to say anything else until he was. "Alright. P'raps we should get to bed in a bit, yeah?"

"You may be right," Harry agreed, put his arm around Eggsy to gently pull him back against his side. In doing so, it brought the nearly healed but still nasty cut on his hand to Eggsy's attention again. Harry'd claimed it was due to his own foolish mistake with a pair of scissors, though under the circumstances, Eggsy was starting to doubt it. Even more than the confusing half-truths, Eggsy was irritated by the fact that he could have healed both of those injuries in two seconds flat with the right spell, but couldn't because of his own fucking secret keeping. Perhaps he'd check with Charlie if his aunt could still get hold of those forms... 

 

~

 

"Shall I call a taxi?" Harry said as the two of them were leaving the restaurant, content and pleasantly full after dinner. The walk wasn't a long one, but he liked to have the option should they need it, and it would only take a moment to send one from the shop, no matter the hour, if Eggsy so wished.

"Nah, it's a nice evening," Eggsy said, hand rubbing absently at his belly, "walkin' won't do us any harm, yeah? And honestly I could do with a breather after all that food."

"If you wish," Harry said, removing his hand from his coat pocket and holding it out to Eggsy.

Eggsy gladly reached out to twine his fingers with Harry's, smiling wide, hesitating a moment before saying, "we don't do stuff like this as much as I thought we would."

"What, walk?" said Harry, purposefully missing the point, just to see Eggsy roll his eyes. "I don't know about you darling, but I spend rather a lot of time on my feet at work." _Just not behind the counter and in the fitting rooms like I told you._

"Don't be twat," Eggsy squeezed his hand, tugged him a little closer so they were walking with their shoulders pressed together and arms squashed between them. He smelt like a mix of the rather unsubtle aftershave he favoured, the beer he'd had with dinner, and a slightly odd and musty animal smell - no doubt he'd been letting JB sleep on the jacket he was wearing. Again. "I mean, hold hands and stuff. Just walk around."

"Mm. You may have a point." Since they'd moved in together, they'd been making less of an effort to get out and do things, what with knowing they'd be able to spend time together at home instead. In future, perhaps they might prioritise making a little more time, and Eggsy deserved to know why it was Harry always seemed to have so little of it at the very least. Eggsy's small, simple statement of the fact had made up Harry's mind - he would confess all. He'd come close inadvertently too many times already. When he'd gotten back home from shutting down the smuggling ring under the guise of a bakery in Italy last week, he'd been so eager to sweep Eggsy into his arms, that he'd forgotten to remove his gun holsters. Fortunately, Eggsy hadn't noticed, and he'd managed to extricate himself with the excuse of taking a shower, and stashed them away. The Kingsman paperwork to make it all official was in the hidden safe in the dining room, waiting for Eggsy to fill it out, if he didn't go running the moment Harry told him the truth, that was.

They were taking a shortcut through a narrow street not too far from the Mews when it happened. Harry heard a noise, just the slightest scrape of a shoe sole on tarmac, quiet enough that it was obviously not intended to be heard.

"I'd love for you to meet her babes, I reckon you'd get on like a - "

"Eggsy, quiet a moment," Harry said, slowly letting go of his hand to adjust his grip on the handle of his rainmaker, stilling his breathing to listen out for anything else.

Eggsy snorted, unaware they were being watched. "If I was borin' you, you could've just said - fuck!"

Whoever it was that had been waiting for them chose that moment to strike, grabbing Eggsy and yanking him away - no doubt assuming he was a soft, easy target - and holding a knife to his throat.

"Eggsy, don't - "

"Mr DeVere," a man addressed Harry by his favoured alias as he stepped from the shadows, half a dozen or so more following suit, "you were far easier to locate than we expected." He spoke with an Italian accent, and Harry began to suspect that he hadn't tidied up the loose ends of his mission the week before quite so neatly as he'd thought. No matter. He could tidy them now. 

"Good evening, gentlemen," he said, stalling for time as he mentally calculated the best way to get out of the unfortunate situation he'd landed himself and Eggsy in with minimal damage.

"Harry, who the fuck are these dickheads?" Eggsy said with scowl, though he snapped his mouth shut when the man holding him hostage yanked his head back by his hair and pressed the flat side of the blade to his skin.

"You had best tell your boy to mind his mouth while the grown ups talk, hmm?" said the first man, teeth a flash of white in the gloom as he curled back his lips to smirk at him. 

"Oi, you fuckin' - "

"Eggsy," Harry cut him off sharply. As much as he admired Eggsy'd gumption in such an unexpected situation, he wasn't willing to test their patience until he had a solid plan. He didn't want to risk raising a hand to activate his glasses - the men seemed skittish and over excited at the prospect of revenge, and he wouldn't put it past them to 'mistake' the movement for an attack on his part. He had rather messily disposed of their leader and destroyed their bakery/drug smuggling HQ after all, and they were obviously out for blood. It was a shame Eggsy had liked their florentines so much - they certainly wouldn't be making any more. 

"Very sensible," the man said with a leer. "Now, Mr DeVere. We have a few questions for you. And you'd best play nice and co-operate, or your boy here will find out just how unpleasant we can be when the mood takes us."

Harry acknowledged him with the barest dip of his head. "I'm listening."

"You thought you'd finished us off, hmm?" he began, and Harry could smell the premature egocentric victory monologue coming a mile away. Well, it would give him a few more precious seconds to figure this out, at least. "But it is not so. We have sniffed you out Mr DeVere, and now we - "

"Fuck this," Eggsy drawled, cutting off the idiot mid-monologue. Impressively quickly, he ducked and drove his elbow into his captor's groin, using the brief moment of freedom it gave him to pull what appeared to be a stick out of the folds of his jacket. Though Harry suspected that somehow wasn't quite the case when he shouted a nonsense word and a flash of red light hit the man in the chest, making him fall to the floor rigid and unconscious. Well then. It was certainly original. Enraged by their now apparently out for the count associate, the other thugs ignored Harry altogether and rushed at Eggsy, hissing all manner of nasty things in Italian that Harry would assuredly not be translating for Eggsy's benefit. Before Harry could do much more than readjust his grip on the rainmaker ready to attack, Eggsy was shouting more nonsense and waving the stick around in a manner both oddly fluid and rather accurate, if the rate the men were dropping to the ground was anything to go by. It was when the third hit the floor and another finally noticed that Harry was in a moment of weakness and lunged at him that he was shaken from his stupor with the notion that he should at least try to help Eggsy, though honestly it didn't look like he needed it.

 

~

 

"Stupefy!"

It was one hundred percent not how Eggsy had pictured the evening going. A nice walk home, then seeing if he could sway Harry into a bit of a snog on the sofa, before a quick shower and then maybe a 'thanks for dinner Harry I fucking love you' blowie. Not fucking _this._ Typical. 

"Bollocks," he hissed, as one of the blokes decided he wasn't worth the trouble and lurched towards Harry instead. Harry who was still staring at him like he'd just grown another head and doing fuck all to defend himself. "Petrificus totalus!" The heavy thump when the twat hit the tarmac was pretty satisfying. With no time to check Harry was alright, he span back around to fire another stunner at the bloke waving a penknife at him - seriously? A _penknife?_ \- before rolling out of the way of another. 

"The fuck is your problem, mate," he grunted as he practically bent over backwards to dodge a sloppily aimed kick from the knob who'd thought it was okay to threaten Harry. "All I wanted was a nice fucking night out with my boyfriend, and you twats had to go and - Impedimentia!" Seriously, he'd had about enough of this shit, where the fuck were they all coming from? There was going to be a fuckload of paperwork when it as over that was for sure, and he'd probably get an earful from the head of the department, but the muggles could all be obliviated no probs. Harry though... He twisted to try and catch a glimpse of him again, see if he needed help, but to his astonishment, Harry was kicking absolute _arse._ He'd just punched one guy straight on the nose then cracked him over the back with his umbrella - his fucking _brolly,_ of all things - his face set in an unnerving calmness at odds with the havoc he was wreaking. Mate. Eggsy had known he wasn't the only one keeping secrets, but it was validating to finally have some solid proof. 

Between the two of them, it was over quickly. Before he could even take a breath to explain to Harry what the fuck had just happened, a couple of ministry blokes apparated in, making Harry flinch and widen his stance, as though he was about to unleash the brolly on them too. As entertaining as that would be, Eggsy thought he should probably step in before he did. 

"It's alright babes," he said quietly, putting a hand on Harry's elbow to stop him, as they set about obliviating the muggles before they regained consciousness. "Alright Hugh?" he said to one of the ministry guys he recognised from the queue into work in the mornings - he bred nifflers, and was always keen to show Eggsy _Prophet_ clippings about his prizewinners. "Am I in for it?"

"Nah Eggs," Hugh threw him a lopsided grin and jabbed his wand a little harder into one of the thugs than was professionally necessary. "They'll tear a strip off you for it, but nothing worse than that. Self defence, yeah? Slap on the wrist. And we'll be sending you a couple of forms for this mess in the morning." He jerked a thumb at Harry. "Need me to do him too?"

"No!" Eggsy near enough jumped in front of him. "No. It's good, yeah? Me and him just got have a little chat." He really hoped he wouldn't be calling Hugh in for his services again that night. Although, he thought bitterly, if it came to obliviating Harry, it was going to be done by Eggsy's hand or none at all, that much he was sure of. He looked guiltily at Harry before turning to walk towards home, hoping he'd follow without a fuss. It would have been twenty times easier for him to just apparate the pair of them back, but something told him it was not the time to be pulling that out of nowhere on top of everything else. He'd have to explain that too at some point though - Harry had already noticed the hot, sooty smell that lingered after he apparated, Eggsy'd caught him sniffing the air in puzzlement after he came home from work more than once. 

 

~

 

When Eggsy had made no further comment about the men they'd collectively rendered unconscious but simply started to walk home, Harry had followed him without complaint. Part of him wondered whether he should be calling Kingsman to sort out the mess they'd left behind, but whoever those men were that Eggsy knew seemed to be doing a satisfactory job of it. It was apparent they had much to discuss, and seemed to be in agreement that the best place to do it was not in the street. He hadn't missed the guilty wince Eggsy had shot him before turning away, and he had to admit that whatever it was he was about to disclose had Harry intrigued. That was, when he wasn't too busy feeling guilty about his own withheld information.  
When they arrived back at Stanhope Mews after a grimly silent walk along the dark streets, they went through the motions of taking off their shoes and jackets, switching lights on and moving into the sitting room without a word to each other. It wasn't until they were sitting down, Harry in the armchair and Eggsy a careful distance away on the sofa, that they spoke. 

"It appears we both have something to disclose," Harry said carefully after an interminable amount of time.

"Yeah," Eggsy swallowed, a flicker of a smile about his mouth, still twisting the stick between his fingers. "You first."

Harry inclined his head. Straight to it, then. "I'm not a tailor. Kingsman is not a tailor shop. It's the front for a secret intelligence agency."

"So you're a spy?" Eggsy narrowed his eyes, uncertain.

Harry felt himself grimace. He never thought that word really did it justice, it was at once too much and not enough to encompass what they did. "Loosely speaking, yes."

Eggsy snorted. "You're havin' me on."

Harry felt himself puffing up in the face of Eggsy's disbelief. "Oh? So there's never been anything to make you suspect something of that sort might be the case?" He watched as Eggsy gave it a moment's thought, doubtful smile collapsing as he weighed up whatever suspicions Harry had guessed he had.

"Hm," Eggsy nodded to himself, frowning in thought and shuffling back further into the sofa cushions. "It explains a few things."

"I - " Harry paused, jaw stiff as he tried to find the words, "I don't wish to seem ungrateful for your admirably rational behaviour here darling, but I was expecting a little more of a reaction."

"I won't lie babes, it weren't what I was expecting to hear," Eggsy said, "and I'll probably be really pissed with you later when I don't feel so fucking guilty about what I've kept from you, but right now..." he snorted and shook his head. "Harry, you're the least subtle person I've ever met. Of course you ain't a fucking tailor. Business trips my arse, I know fucking bruised ribs when I see them."

"Right. I see." Well then...

"And I found that safe of yours in the dining room," Eggsy added with rather more glee than Harry thought necessary. "The gun did tip me off something about you was a bit dodge."

"What? You found the - "

"Not important right now, yeah? It's my turn, before I fucking burst."

"I - " Harry bit back any further objections to Eggsy's nonchalance over the knowledge that his significant other was in fact a secret agent, and relented. He was just as curious as to Eggsy's secret, after all. "Alright. Go on."

"I can do magic."

...Harry had expected something rather grander. "I'm afraid I don't understand," he said eventually. He surely couldn't have meant something so pedestrian as card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats. Nor would that explain any of that evening's events.

"Aw fuck, ok," Eggsy scrubbed a hand over his face and tried again. "Magic. I - I do spells and shit. I've got a wand and - " he held up the stick, then opted for a more blunt approach. "I'm a wizard, Harry."

"You can't be serious." Harry tried not to sound belittling, but if the outraged look Eggsy was giving him was anything to go by, he was unsuccessful.

"Oh so you get to be a fucking spy but me having magic is out of the fucking question. What about all that shite you saw me do earlier, hmm? That not enough for you? Fine," he started looking wildly around the room, as if searching for something to demonstrate his point with.

"Eggsy, really, I'm sure if you just explain again - "

"Nah it's fine babes I got this. JB!" he hollered in the direction of the kitchen, and sure enough, the pug came waddling ungainly into the sitting room, looking expectantly up at his master. "JB ain't a pug," Eggsy said, pointing the stick - wand - at the wheezing little dog, "he's actually an owl. I transfigure him into a dog when you're around, I thought an owl might raise a few questions. I was going for a bulldog, but I couldn't quite get it..." he trailed off, attention focused on JB as he made a complicated little sweep with the wand. Instantaneously, JB the pug was gone, and in his place sat a squat little brown owl, blinking balefully up at the pair of them.

"Well," said Harry after a brief staring contest - which he lost - with the grumpy little bird, "that would explain the feathers I keep finding around the house, at any rate." 

"So," Eggsy said hesitantly, "you're cool with it?"

"I believe there are a few finer points that I may need a little time to grasp," said Harry, "but yes, I'm 'cool with it.' It would be somewhat hypocritical of me to be otherwise. And - you've no concerns about my occupation?"

"I wouldn't say 'no concerns,'" Eggsy imitated Harry's voice, "but it's like you said innit - it'd be a bit shitty of me to call you out on it considering. Besides, sounds pretty exciting," he sauntered over, plopped down onto the arm of the chair, leaned in so close their noses touched, "gentleman spy."

Unable to stop himself, Harry pulled him down the rest of the way and into his lap, kissing him quick and breathless in pure relief and joy that his dear boy was so forgiving, so willing to accommodate the truth Harry had laid out before him, at long last. Speaking of which, there were matters to be taken care of, before he demonstrated to Eggsy just how grateful he was. He broke the kiss reluctantly, Eggsy trailing after him, before he eased him off his lap and stood to move across the hall to the dining room, opening up the wall safe and pulling from it the envelope stamped with the Kingsman sigil. It contained the disclosure paperwork for Eggsy to fill in, should he be willing, that would make him Harry's partner officially in the eyes of Kingsman, and therefore permitted to know all. Within reason at least - there were some things he would never be granted permission to disclose. 

"I planned to tell you soon," Harry said, presenting the forms to a slightly dazed looking Eggsy, still pink in the face from the heated kiss and the evening's excitement in general, no doubt, "I've had these ready and waiting for a while now, but I haven't quite been brave enough to make the leap." Silly really, compared to the other and vastly more dangerous things he had made the leap from in the past, both figuratively and physically. 

Eggsy blinked at the proffered papers, grinning in comprehension but not taking them, instead wriggling around where he sat to pull something out of his pocket. He triumphantly pulled a small scrap of paper from the back pocket of his jeans. Seeing Harry's bewilderment, he tutted and tapped it with the wand, where it grew significantly larger.

"Snap," he said, waving the roll of paper at Harry. "I've been carting these 'round in my back pocket for ages, ready to make it official. If you still want me, that is," he said it brashly, but his smile wavered and blurred at the edges.

Harry didn't dignify that with an answer, but took the forms from him. They were heavy, written out in a deep maroon ink on rolled sheets of parchment - actual bloody parchment - and stamped with an extravagant looking insignia. In return, he handed Eggsy his own stack of decidedly less flamboyant papers. "Confidentiality forms," he said, "among other bureaucratic fripperies. The long and short of it being that they grant me official permission to confide in you about the true nature of Kingsman and my work, with you listed as my long term partner." 

"If that didn't sound so fucking official babes, I'd call you a romantic." 

"Yes well," Harry said, and handed him a pen from his jacket pocket.

Eggsy took it with an expression bordering on wonder. "Oh my God, I miss biros."

"Wizards don't have pens?" said Harry wryly.

"You'll need this," Eggsy smirked in return and once again delved into his pocket, this time pulling out a slightly crumpled looking quill. Right then. It seemed wizards did in fact not use pens.

"Ah."

"Don't worry, it's self-inking," Eggsy said without looking up, already scanning the small print set out in the forms written by the previous Merlin.

"Right," Harry said faintly, and turned his attention to the parchment. The basic purpose of it was to swear the partner of one Gary Lee Unwin to secrecy of their knowledge of the wizarding world, and to make it clear it was Mr Unwin's responsibility to educate him on it where necessary and keep him in line. As far as keeping him in line was concerned, Harry mused as he watched Eggsy chew at the biro lid in concentration and sign his name on the dotted lines, Eggsy had a far better chance than any other. 

 

~

 

Being able to share his world with Harry was better than Eggsy could have imagined - mostly because he'd never bothered to think much beyond the immense relief that finally spilling the secret would give him. 

As an optional part of him being on record as Harry's official partner, he'd been given the chance to formally visit Kingsman HQ last week, and had all but dragged Harry into the car at the first opportunity they got. Included in the Kingsman experience was a tour of the mansion, or the low security parts of it at least, stopping off to play with the puppies - and wondering if he could sneak a pug puppy into his jacket pocket, now that JB could be his owl-ly self full time - and meeting Harry's work mate, Merlin. Eggsy had grilled him about the origin of his codename for a good ten minutes, before realising that those times he'd slipped up and accidentally said 'Merlin' as a curse word during sex had probably freaked Harry the fuck out. He'd made a note to explain that properly at a later date. They'd watched the new recruits in training for the position of Kay, spent way too long in fitting room three sighing over the sweet shop of weaponry - because yeah he may have been a wizard, but he was a muggleborn raised on nineties action movies - and rounded it all off with afternoon tea courtesy of Margaret and the others, who all looked pleased as punch that they needn't keep the truth from Eggsy anymore. All in all, pretty sweet, and more than worth the wait.

So today, it was his turn to show Harry all he'd had to keep under wraps before. Deciding that there was no reason to break him in gently, Eggsy took him straight to Diagon Alley. Just as well throw him in at the deep end. Harry had been worryingly quiet to start with, mouth slack in wonder at all there was to see, taking in the shops and the people without comment. But it wasn't long before he was asking questions, hand firm in Eggsy's as he tugged him towards whichever sparkling shopfront took his interest. Eggsy had a bloody hard time getting him out of Flourish and Blotts once he'd spotted the unusual books it had to offer - 

"This book can speak, Eggsy." 

"I know, Harry. I had a part time job in here one summer."

"And the pictures move... remarkable."

"You ain't seen nothing yet babes."

From there, Eggsy thought Harry might like to see Eyelops, considering how fascinated he was by JB and the concept of owl post - despite claiming it was highly impractical and why didn't they just have postmen. And he wanted Harry to see a krup, given how attached he was to the dead terrier mounted above the loo, he thought he might have found it interesting. The both of them were just as guilty as each other when it came to cooing over the bizarre array of pets on offer, although they left pretty sharpish when Eggsy saw the woman behind the counter give Harry an agreeable once over.  
They stopped for lunch, most of which was spent with Harry questioning him non stop on the finer points of the offensive and defensive magic his job involved. At first Eggsy wondered if it was because Harry was worried for his safety, which was probably true in part, but he soon realised it was mostly out of professional interest from the point of view of someone whose job was actually very similar to that of an auror - they both fought to keep others safe, at the end of the day. There was a brief moment then that Eggsy was saddened by the fact that he would never see Harry work with a wand - he was such a showy bastard, and Eggsy knew that his spellwork would no doubt have been flamboyant and beautiful to watch, if he'd had magic. 

"Do you know, I rather like this," Harry said later on in the Leaky Cauldron, though he was still looking down at the glass of firewhiskey as though he distrusted it.

"Thought you might," Eggsy sipped slowly at the dregs of his pint - he had to apparate them back later, and side-along apparation while under the influence had backfired for him in the past. 

"For something called firewhiskey, it's surprisingly subtle." 

Eggsy hummed in agreement, nudging Harry's knee with his own where they brushed under the table, but before he could say anything else, a small group of witches blustered in and up to the bar, all draped in scarves declaring love for their chosen quidditch team. They were chattering excitedly about the score of the small league match they'd just watched - Kingsbridge Kelpies vs Dartmoor Doxies - as the bloke behind the bar pulled them pints of butterbeer and good-nauturedly ribbed them about their choice of team.

"I assume they're not football teams," Harry said after listening to them for a few minutes, eyes narrowed, "and what on earth is a doxy?"

"Oh fuck it," Eggsy said ten minutes later, after having attempted to explain quidditch to Harry but gotten nothing more than a disbelieving stare ever since he'd mentioned flying broomsticks. "Merlin, you're being difficult."

"I'll never get used to that. And I suppose this might explain your odd attachment to that manky old broom in the cupboard," said Harry as Eggsy opened his mouth in mock outrage over the slandering of his broom, "but I still find it a little hard to believe."

"So that's where you're drawing the line then?" Eggsy said - he'd been wondering all day which part of it would trip Harry up. "Fair enough. I'll take you to watch one of the school matches sometime, that'll open your eyes." 

Harry blinked at him, and Eggsy was half expecting another argument about the twelve ways in which flying brooms made absolutely no sense, but instead Harry blurted, "you have schools?"

"Of course we got schools babes. Where the fuck did you think we learn how to do all this?"

"I - good point."

 

~

 

The two of them had woken up in the same bed any number of times, as one was prone to doing when in a relationship. Eggsy had woken up to Harry kissing soft just behind his ear and murmuring goodbyes, sharply dressed in his suit and ready to board the Kingsman jet, off to save the world again. Harry had woken to Eggsy muttering darkly about the cracked skin on his knuckles, the small nick of a knife wound in his side, before pulling out his wand to patch him up. Occasionally, they were both woken by Daisy jumping onto their bed if she'd stayed the night, prodding at them both until they got up so that Harry could make her breakfast and they could all watch cartoons together. They'd woken to blissful mornings where neither of them had anywhere to be other than with each other, slow, sleepy touches and morning breath kisses.  
They'd also woken up apart, though this didn't ache quite so much as it used to, now each knew the real reason for other's absence. Or roughly anyway - they couldn't always tell each other exactly what they were doing. But Eggsy knew that Harry wasn't fitting a suit, he was busy taking out the bad guys. And Harry knew Eggsy wasn't sitting in an office, he was in Exmoor on a training exercise with Roxy and Charlie, or in a lecture at the ministry about health and safety in the field. And that was enough. They'd woken up next to each other many times, but the most recent few had been the best of the lot.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry about the 'I'm a wizard, Harry.' I was weak.


End file.
